lolly cake cheesecake

it's our friend keryn's birthday tomorrow. she has been such a wonderful support to steve and oli over the past few years (she and her husband lyndon live next door to them) and we are super grateful and love her very much. so, i wanted to make her a special cake!

she looooves lolly cake, a kiwi dessert made from biscuits, butter, condensed milk, coconut and eskimo lollies and a few years back, i happened upon a recipe for a lolly cake cheesecake! i have made it once before, but don't think i shared it on here (sorry if i have already!) so here it is, so i can make it again if we so desire. you can find the original recipe here.

lolly cake cheesecake

ingredients:

1 packet malt biscuits - crushed

90 g butter

100 mls condensed milk

170g Pascal Eskimos

2 pkts cream cheese (500g)

¼ cup caster sugar

2 teaspoons gelatine (dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water)

1 cup whipped cream

500g melted chocolate

to make the base:

Stir melted butter and condensed milk over low heat, add chopped Eskimos, and crushed malt biscuits, mix well and press into a spring form tin, refrigerate.

Put cream cheese into a bowl with caster sugar and mix well to combine. Add gelatine dissolved in ¼ cup of boiling water. Fold in whipped cream and then melted chocolate. Mix well and pour into tin. Let set and then decorate with Eskimos and drizzled chocolate. Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

the verdict:

oh my gosh. this is so insanely sickly sweet and i am a total sweet tooth. i honestly don't know if i would make it again because you can only eat such a tiny amount without feeling overwhelmed by it. keryn seemed to like it though, so win win!

bathroom inspo

what a freaking nightmare. on our list of to-do's for our house is to completely redo both our bathrooms. the kids one has always smelt slightly musty since we moved in, but smelt wet in the winter months, even when we were not using it. we had a plumber come in and look at the two (as our ensuite has leaked through to the wall behind in the past also) only to find that the two of them were not sealed correctly during the build and are leaking into the rest of the bathroom and house surrounding them.

oh great. 

however, (here enters jade the eternal optimist) when we bought the house, the only things that i did not like were in fact the bathrooms and the laundry. just not to my taste at all. so, this gives us a chance to make them something we are happy with! i was totally convinced that i wanted white and grey, but after doing some googling/pinteresting over the last week or so, i am obsessed with green! dark green/white/copper pipes are totally singing to me. now just to get the husband on board. 

here's some of the pics i have for inspiration, which i am posting here, so that when we decide on what we are doing and actually finish it, i can look back and see if it's anything like what i currently have in mind!

just be kind

there is so much nastiness in the world at the moment. i can't understand why people need to behave the way they do but there seems to be no end in sight. innocent people have been murdered in the united states, a teenage boy has been killed at the hands of other teenage boys in the eastern states just this week... everything is already crazy from months on end of other issues with covid-19 at the middle and some days this feels as though it is never going to end.

this evening before bed i sat my kids down and told them some things that have been going through my mind. above everything else, be kind. being kind is not a weakness. it is showing strength. look for ways to help and uplift. be the person who helps others. who looks for ways to be better. who talks to people who are left out. who invites others who didn't get included. who volunteers to make the workload lighter. the person who exemplifies christ. 

christ taught us to "bear one anothers burdens that they may be light" and more than anything else to love one another. there was no exemptions on this, just love each other. the world is getting darker around us and we need to be the light and lead by example. they listened and asked questions, so hopefully my discussion (let's be honest, it was a lecture) had some impact on them. but honestly from me, to you, if you can choose to be something, choose to be kind. it doesn't cost anything and the rewards are infinite. 

alexander is 20 months

twenty months old. twenty. 

not too long until my month photos will cease and stop annoying my millions* of readers 

(*two at best)

this past month though... we have:

-starting saying hey duggee properly now

-broke 3 glasses in one week

-fell in love with bubbles and kept yelling bubble! bubble! bubble!

-races around, getting into everything

-kept saying mum for nanna when he could see her on facetime, maddie said no, thats mum's mum, so he started calling her mum-mum

-says hewo! bye bye bye bye bye bye!

-blows kisses. mwah!

-says hi! hi!

-when he can hear the bluey theme song, he yells mum! and dad! at the right time.

you crazy little dude, we love you so much.

booklovers

blessed are the children of the bookworms, for they shall inherit books. 

we looove books in this family. we have so many and i love that my kids love them just as much as i do. i feel like i am winning at life when i see them with their heads in a book.

a few weeks ago, we went on a hunt around our local little free libraries and did some exchanging after i had cleaned out our bookshelves ( a regular occurrence withe the amount of books we have)... but then i posted on a local page talking about the ones we knew locations of - only to very happily be told of more!

we now know of the following in our area

- 172 hermitage dr, the vines

- avairy creek playground, aveley

- the jungle park, brabham

- 19 wexcombe way, aveley

- 33 highpoint blvd, ellenbrook

and the only one i am yet to see...

-main playground, whiteman park

we love seeing what is on offer and exchanging books - it is so much fun.

and the most wonderful thing happened the week after! joseph is reading book after book and can hardly wait to find a new one when he's done with the last. i was looking on our local free page and a very kind local posted a bunch of books suitable for him, which she passed on to me - only when i collected them, she had man more waiting for me! 

enough for both of the older kids... and then asked me if any of us like harry potter - only to insist i take a copy of the fully illustrated edition, which i have wanted for so long! thrilled doesn't even cover it. i was ecstatic. i can't wait to get into it. 

books books books. just give us all of the books!

marlee's trolls cake

i finally got to make my first chocolate overload cake this weekend, a trolls birthday cake for my friends sweet daughter marlee. i had always considered making one but had no good reason, until now. but it was super fun. 

i used this recipe that i made jett from next doors birthday cake with, doubled to make four cakes - along with the same icing. 

layered with icing as filling, and coated around with it too, before i started adding decorations

grabbed some bits and pieces from kmart (the rainbow straps) coles (twirls, freddos, hundred and thousands biscuits, curly wurlys and coloured pearls) and the reject shop (windmill lollipops) and thew it all on there til it looked good and finished, then added trolls. bobs your uncle. the birthday girl was very pleased, so i was happy!

happy birthday little miss marlee! 

anxiety overload

it is not something i go around telling people, so unless you know me really well, you'd probably never know. but i have super bad anxiety. crippling in fact. the last few months and the state of the world around us have certainly not helped. everyone that suffers from anxiety feels it differently, but some days i feel like i have my head in a vice. for me, something little can set me off, like not getting an answer to a text message, realising i have something i didn't do, that something is broken or missing... i really can't pinpoint it, but little things get me going. the worst bit is, the constant analysing of every word i say when a conversation is over. you better believe that if you've ever had a conversation with me and i've been awkward (which i can guarantee you i have, even if you don't think i have been, i do) i will be replaying every word over and over in my head, groaning about what i could have said and done differently. 

it is a constant thing. i worry about strange things. if i get a call from someone out of the blue, i worry about what i could have said or done to offend them. it makes me feel like bad things constantly happen to me. it makes it hard for me to have great friendships, unless i really trust people and know they understand me, to be a good mother - cause i am always on edge and struggle to be calm and present even though i love my children madly. 

but i am trying every single day to master this and make myself stronger. please have patience with me and try to understand what it is like to live inside my head. because i am trying my hardest.

i have read two great articles in the last few months, that helped me to understand the way i feel and how i can grow and be stronger. so, if you want to know what it's like to be inside my head, have a read of these:

the trials we carry with us by elisha ransom

anxiety makes me think everything is my fauly by b.l. acker